HISTORY

In the early 1970's the renowned Buddhist meditation master, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche, began to teach about the Buddha families. At the same time he and Zen meditation master Suzuki Roshi had some idea of working together with a combination of traditional approaches and contemporary therapy. Suzuki Roshi died but the idea of a therapeutic community remained. It was not clear what practice would be associated with this until Trungpa Rinpoche, inspired by the Tibetan vajrayana tradition of working with colors and shape, came up with working with postures in colored rooms.

A first Maitri group studied Buddhist psychology — realms, bardos, structure of ego — which became the book "Transcending Madness." A Maitri Conference convened in Boulder in 1973 in preparation to move into the therapeutic community. The first Maitri Center was established in Elizabethtown, New York in 1974 and moved to Wingdale, on the New York/Connecticut border in 1975. This community had a staff of 10 to 12 people, a few resident clients, and also ran programs of various lengths. Subsequently it developed a full-fledged training program for therapists which was the beginning of the MA Contemplative Psychotherapy program at Naropa University in Boulder, Colorado.

At the same time Maitri Space Awareness was being created, Mudra Space Awareness and Dharma Art were coming into being in Boulder. Since then many artists have been inspired in their creative work as it provides a contemplative view towards art expression. Maitri is now actively taught at Naropa University in many departments.

In the 1990's Maitri began to spread outside of Naropa to the meditation centers of the Shambhala International organization and into professional arenas. After color maitri rooms were built in 1992 Karmê Chöling began hosting intensive programs. In 1993 weekend programs were made possible with the creation of Maitri glasses and Maitri programs sprouted all over the globe. Permanent Maitri Rooms were also set up at Dechen Choling in France and then at Shambhala Mountain Center in 2002. Professional organizations such as Karuna Training, Enlightened by Design, The Five Wisdoms Institute and East Wind began offering intensive Maitri programs for professionals.

Recently, Maitri Space Awareness practice — now called Five Wisdom Energies Practice — became part of the first year core curriculum of the Shambhala School of Buddhist Studies.